A Return to Simple Sewing

For around a month at the end of summer term, I stopped sewing. It wasn’t a conscious choice, more of a gradual resignation that either there weren’t enough hours in the week to sew, or just that my mind lacked the capacity to settle to anything as involved as sewing because there was so much going on at work.

Then, all of a sudden, last weekend something changed. Although I have the same three WIPs on the go that I have had for a while, it was only when I began to think about making something for someone else that I was inspired enough to sit in front of my machine and focus.

It was a couple it days until my mum’s birthday, and though I’d already bought her a Kipling bag I knew a homemade top would mean more. I wasn’t interested in trawling through my pattern collection, and instead went straight to my TNT See Kate Sew Zippy Top.

I used some striped fabric I’d picked up at Barnsley market a while ago, it was only 1m so £3-4 but was wide enough so I could squeeze the pattern out. It had a kind of linen feel with a thin metallic stripe running through. It sewed up quickly, though I deviated from the pattern by adding French seams which I top stitched down across the shoulders for a neat finish. The zip insertion was a little low but other than that ok. I was pleased with the overall finish, both inside and out.

Straight after, I cut a second Zippy out of some bicycle print Riley Blake that I had bought specifically to make something for my mother in law. Her birthday was back in May, so I was long overdue sewing something up for her. Again it sewed up quickly, although the fabric around the bottom of the zip somehow puckered. This time I chopped a chunk off the length and made sure the sleeves were wide enough.

I wrapped up both tops ready to be delivered during the week.

Some selfless sewing certainly helped me to regain my sew-jo, and that combined with the start of the summer holidays means I am itching to start sewing (for myself) again. What’s more, by the end of the week, I think that there were two very happy Zippy Top recipients:

Lovely tops – I am having a sewing lull myself. Its the simplicity battling with the creative – do I need more clothes! Perhaps I should take a leaf out of your book and make something for someone else!